Matrix has shocked me with this Patch silliness.

[doomonyou]

Listen up boys. What I bought from you is a PREMIUM game. I paid as much for this game and its attendant mailed cd as I pay for two normal games. Then I go and have to jump through more !@#$ hoops to download a stupid patch than I do to E-File my taxes off of TurboTax.

THAT ISN'T RHETORIC, ITS FACTS.

You know, one of my other favorite games hearts of iron by paradox (europa universalis) puts thier patches on the forums and you just click on the attachment. Many other companies have "auto patchers" (for example, everything else)

You guys apparently are too cool to have either.

Double register for your members area? Do I need a retnial scan before I unzip the file? Put your serial number in to patch? Well figuring out how to look that up only took fifteen minutes, then I thought wait I will just open that CD mailer and get out the Matrix CD because its MUST have the serial number on it.

which is when I noticed you don't put the serial number on the Cd. Which I paid 10$ for EXPRESSLY thinking that it would save me trouble with any future reinstall. SO I broke out the old black marker. Hey wait a minute, I am writing on your manufactured CD as if I just burned it myself. Gee I wonder if Doomonyou will ever order a mailed CD again?

super work. This is the kind of experience I expect from a game that costs 20$ not 4 times that.

Suggestions:

-Put your patches on the forums. I hate to break it to you, but if somebodies scamming you with pirated stuff, umm I think once they've cracked the game the patch should be really really hard to crack too.

-I am happy to throw a few extra dollars in to help a small niche shop. Put all relavant info on your manufactured CD's so I can find them a month later and remember why I bought it

-Multiple registrations for patches? Your "Members Area" smacks of people who cannot come up with a solution more innovative than my local DMV. Customers like to be treated like valued guests, and I felt this morning like I was dealing with the State. Dump this silliness.

-Wow. 122 mb patch. You may want to break these into more smaller patches. Even on DSL that just took the better part of half and hour. I can't even imagine what 56K people must be going through.

[SunDevil_MatrixForum]

doomonyou,

Hello, this patch is only this big because of all the sound issues and fixes. It has been stated that in the future, patches will be much smaller.

[carnifex]

which is when I noticed you don't put the serial number on the Cd.

imho the # isnt on the cd to cut down on errors

when you buy the game online you are given a serial from a long list of serials stored by dr

if requested, dr then informs the shipping mechanism to send you a cd copy

the shipper has a big stack of witp's and he takes one off the top and mails it to you. you get exactly what you ordered.

if the shipper had to look through all his stock to find the exact 20 something digit one that belongs to you, eventually you would have some people who got witp with one serial while they were emailed another. this isn't rhetoric, this is a fact of shipping.

both serials would work. you now have two copies of the game. dr has to generate more serials, stuff gets confused, people post on forums which one do i use nice service [:D]

[Arnir]

Perhaps I am missing something here, but when I downloaded my copy of the game, I used a CD marker to write the SN on the burned disk and also wrote it down on the paper sleeve I used for the disk. Is the issue that some people didn't record their SN and now can't find it?

I also registered the game a long time ago and seem to remember being surprised by some of the registration process, but when I went for the patch there was no problem. Well, no problem once I figured out to click on digital. For those having problems with this registration, look on the bright side: next time there shouldn't be any hassles at all.'

The patch size is huge but with the sound files it couldn't have been smaller. I used DAP and it speeded up the download greatly. (However, it appears to install spyware and I'm not at all happy about that.) All that being said, I would hate to still be on dialup. At the very least I would be looking for a local internet cafe with broadband.

[doomonyou]

I don't really care what the excuses are. This is the most expensive computer game I have ever purchased bar nothing. This particular patch experience was the most aggravating I have had in quite some time.

It may well be that there are people who don't care what thier customer experience is. I am not one of them. I like matrix and thier games, but they need to know that people (at least those that I know) have raised expectations when you price a game at nearly 100% above market. They should (morally and for business reasons) strive to meet these expectations. Now that I have pointed this out they can do as they will.

both serials would work. you now have two copies of the game. dr has to generate more serials, stuff gets confused, people post on forums which one do i use nice service [:D]

BTW that isn't the case.

That they don't put a functional serial number on my printed disk is BS because they manage to match the ORDER number to the CD which is linked to my specific account. This should be fixed in the future.

however snide fanboi comments do not help a business grow or succeed. There is no company in the world that has ever been built without customer feedback, including negative customer feedback.

[Theng]

My first Gary Grigsby game was War in Russia (83 or so?) and I paid more than $200 for it since I lived overseas then... As a student I worked for almost 4 weeks then to be able to afford it. $70 today is not a lot...

but also remember, back then it snowed 3 feet of snow every day, we had to walk barefeet to to school, which was uphill both ways, and we had afternoon sand storms as well. Those were the days!

[olivier_slith]

yeah, and I even needed a machete to cut a path in the bamboo forest to reach school...everyday...[:D]

Yes, It's an expensive and a bit irritating to have to download a 120mb patch. But, I expect to play this game for at least the next 10 years like I have been playing Pacific War on and off since it came out. I think I paid $40, I probably played 2000 hours on it, so I figure 2 cents an hour for entertainment that's really cheap!

[Erik Rutins]

Doomonyou,

I'm sorry you are so frustrated with us at the moment. There have been some growing pains with this new system no doubt. First, steps that are already in progress to help in the future:

1. Serial number will be on the CD.
2. CD will be shipped through trackable, faster shipping than USPS.
3. Members Area will be improved to make instructions easier to find and the login/register process more straightforward.

The members area only requires you to register once as a user. Then, for each game you have that has a serial number it requires you to put in the serial number. Now you're done for the entire life of the game and you can always see your serial number there if you lose it. We plan to add value to the Members Area as time goes on and make it a great place for registered customers to use to find important files and add-ons for their games.

The patch size was unfortunately not something we could control. The sound file issue only appeared after release and required us to replace a large number of sound files to try to resolve it.

We distributed our patches publicly in the past, but in the past we also had copy protection. This caused problems for some customers that were much more serious than having to enter a serial number. We were petitioned for years to abandon copy protection and go to a more customer-friendly process. Though you may disagree, this is it. We now have a generous back-up and personal use policy so that you can legally use your copy on your personal computer(s) and make a back-up without needing unusual cracks or an amazing CD burner. In exchange, we ask for a one-time registration to allow us to make sure that the patches are only going to registered users.

If you had problems registering, please e-mail us at membersarea@matrixgames.com and support@matrixgames.com I've heard folks are having trouble getting a response from membersarea@, so please also copy support@. Thanks.

Regards,

- Erik

[bravow01]

well i have had no problems at all. dr download went fine once i got in. that was understandable given how everyone was trying to download. ordered the cd as well and got that a week later. been changing some graphics and that is working well. downloaded the upgrade yesterday. again no problem once i got in. have the serial number on my WitP tips and tricks .doc which i opened so no problem there. ran the patch and started a game and that's that.
i am downloading through cable which is nice but i don't have a problem with the price or the serial number or any of this stuff.

[Wilhammer]

it is a huge pain in the butt - I just got a 36% level server reset, and now I have to restart.

it does not resume - who set that up?

It is actually a huge inconvenience, but I guess it has to be, to try and prevent piracy.

[Wilhammer]

now it broke at 15%, and another restart.

I am going to waste hours today with this?

[SunDevil_MatrixForum]

Get a download manager, that way you can resume downloads, and they can not break on you.

Star Download ( www.stardownloader.com ) is actually abit easier to set up then GetRight. You might want to give it a try.

[Wilhammer]

well, it completed, and it patched.

it hanged at 75% a sec, but it completed.

[SunDevil_MatrixForum]

To make sure it patched correctly on the main screen, it should read version 1.20. Just FYI. Glad to hear it.

[Fallschirmjager]

Im finding the same people complaining about every aspect of buying the game and patching it and etc.
Makes me wonder if its the system or the user...

[Tige]

I don't blame doomonyou for blowing off a little steam.

80 bucks for the game, 23 bucks to have Kinkos print out the sometimes murky manual. A good 4 days of downloading for those of us on dial up.

The sound issue is one thing, stuff happens, but frankly I'm hesitant to start a long term game 4 weeks after release until more bugs are ironed out in subsequent patche(s).

I wonder if WiTP is caught up in trying to improve on the board games of yesteryear rather than improving the simulation of the subject matter. The no waypoint, no how thing jumps to mind as an example, it strikes me that gameplay should move closer to realistic mirroring of things like navigation rather than trying to make the simulation mirror the board game. In the 70s and 80s we had no choice but hexes and stacks of cardboard squares. Maybe it's time to leave the hexes behind and move to lat/long and map grids. After several generations of reproducing the board games it seems the ulitimate reproduction of the boardgame becomes the focus rather than the ulitimate reproduction of the conflict.

I don't want to sound harsh or overly critical. I think overall we are a tolerant bunch and respect the time, effort and hard work that has gone into WiTP and other titles. There are times though where some frustration and angst is applicable.

-Tige

[SunDevil_MatrixForum]

Tige,

You bring up some valid points, but as long as your enjoying yourself and getting entertainment from the game, then that is what matters. Most people have started a couple long campaigns and they know that they might have to start over, but that really does not take away from them the enjoyment of playing the game. For each his own.

[IanAM]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

...we ask for a one-time registration to allow us to make sure that the patches are only going to registered users.

A couple of thoughts...

...I'm sure I've read in another thread that the patch is going to be available on your patch compilation CD...so non-registered users WILL be able to get it...

Thus surely the serial number for patch installation is enough...if a serial gets distributed with a pirated copy of the game illegal users are going to be able to get the patches installed anyway...

Whilst I've no real complaint about the whole system - it's all worked very smoothly for me - it does seem that it's the legitimate users who have to jump through all the extra hoops with the registrations and serial number entries for the Members Area...

Don't want to put ideas into your heads, but the only more secure way of protecting the software would be some sort of online activation of the game where each serial number would only successfully activate the game a limited number of times - as with Windows XP activation...

BUT I HATE THAT SYSTEM OF SOFTWARE ACTIVATION EVEN MORE THAN HAVING TO HAVE A CD IN THE DRIVE [:@] I do have a few programs, including a couple of games that use it, and keep wondering what will happen if I have to reinstall them when the company that has made them has gone out of business and online activation no longer works...

[SlapBone]

ORIGINAL: Tige

80 bucks for the game, 23 bucks to have Kinkos print out the sometimes murky manual.

Speaking of this, has there been any talk of maybe getting the manuals for WITP (and Starshatter also) on Doc Center so we can get these manuals printed at a reasonable price.

[Grotius]

I think the serial number and download process is a reasonable effort to combat piracy.